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The number of people languishing on ambulance trolleys in emergency departments while paramedics queue to hand them over to hospital staff has stayed much the same over the past six months under the Andrews government, and the problem appears to be getting worse.
Leaked data shows 13.8 per cent of patients who arrived at Victoria's public hospitals in an ambulance last month were queuing for longer than 40 minutes with paramedics before they were handed over to doctors and nurses, allowing the paramedics to move on.
In June last year under the former Liberal government, 11.2 per cent of patients waited longer than 40 minutes.
For both periods, the government's target was for 90 per cent of patients to be handed over within 40 minutes to ensure paramedics are free to respond to new calls for help.
The data shows an even worse result for Melbourne hospitals, with 15.3 per cent of patients exceeding the 40 minute target in June this year, compared to 11.8 per cent in June last year.
The median waiting time hovered between 18 and 20 minutes statewide, but 10 per cent of patients throughout the last financial year waited beyond 40-50 minutes to be handed over to hospital staff, tying paramedics and their ambulances up.
The worst performing hospitals for ramping last month were the Royal Melbourne, St Vincent's, the Northern, Sunshine and the Austin in Heidelberg where 20-25 per cent of patients waited longer than 40 minutes.
Ambulance "ramping" was a major issue in the lead-up to last year's election because it has been identified as one of the main drivers of worsening ambulance delays. The issue was persistently highlighted by paramedics and their union while they fought the former Liberal government over a pay deal that was eventually done with the incoming Labor government. The battle was viewed as a crucial loss for the Liberals that may have turned voters against them in some marginal seats.
The data also suggests that former health minister David Davis' 2013 plan for hospitals to take immediate responsibility for patients without a significant increase in hospital bed capacity did not work and that more strategies are required to speed up hand overs.
Before the election, the Labor Party promised to fix the problems plaguing Victoria's ambulance service and one of Premier Daniel Andrews' first acts was to sack the Ambulance Victoria board, which is yet to be replaced.
Labor also promised $100 million would be spent to improve response times, including $60 million for a "response time rescue fund" to free ambulances up for the sickest patients.
But while the government spent $40 million to upgrade branches and equipment in this year's budget, along with $59 million to meet extra demand, its $60 million rescue fund will be paid for between 2016-17 and 2018-19.
A spokeswoman for acting Ambulance Services Minister Martin Foley said this would allow the money to be spent on the recommendations of the government's Ambulance Performance and Policy Consultative Committee, which is due to publish a report by the end of this year.
Ambulance Victoria acting general manager regional services Mick Cameron did not comment on whether response times had got worse this year, but he said AV and hospitals were continuing to implement a range of strategies to manage and improve transfer times.
"These strategies include increased communications between the AV communications centre and hospitals and improved management of patient arrivals in hospital emergency departments," he said.
"For example, ambulance arrival boards at 16 hospitals are a practical measure to track how many ambulances are at the hospital and how many are loaded with a patient and en route."
State secretary of the paramedics union Steve McGhie, who is on the government's committee, said anecdotally, members had not been complaining about ramping as much recently, but he said: "That doesn't mean it's not happening regularly." He said there was a lot of work under way to find new ways to reduce the problem.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy accused the government of breaking its promise to fix the ambulance service and said: "Rather than provide action to reducing ambulance waiting times, Labor has simply set up yet another committee."
